‘Crop mobs': Social media comes to the farm

Published 10/14 2010 02:19PM

Updated 07/23 2015 08:33AM

In the 1930s, it took one farmer to feed every 10 Americans. Now the ratio is 10 times that, and few Americans have strong ties to the food they eat or to the farmers who produce it. But a movement called Community Supported Agriculture is trying to change that.

CSA is a cooperative arrangement between farmers and the people who eat what the farmers produce. Customers share some of the risk of operating a small farm by paying farmers, in advance, for fresh food.

The movement is embraced by young people, many of whom actually go out to farms and help work the land. Not surprisingly, social media plays a central role in forming the volunteer work days. Many of these so-called ‘Crop Mobs’ form around Facebook pages: